Why the Hungarian Grand Prix shouldn’t be Franco Colapinto’s final Alpine race after unseen ‘issues’

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Alpine driver Franco Colapinto may be feeling more pressure than anyone else in the paddock going into the Formula 1 summer break.

Of the 20 drivers currently racing in Formula 1, Franco Colapinto is the only one who has yet to score a point this season.

He replaced Jack Doohan at Alpine at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix after the young Australian also failed to get off the mark after six races.

Colapinto immediately crashed in qualifying at Imola, failing to adhere to one of the three rules Flavio Briatore had set him when he stepped up from his role as reserve driver.

Briatore told Colapinto, via Sky Italia, he needed ‘to be fast, not crash and score points,’ but so far, he’s failed on two of those three aspects.

The Argentine found the barriers during qualifying at Silverstone, ending his hopes of matching Pierre Gasly at the track where he made his first public F1 outing with Williams the previous year and piling more pressure on himself.

The Hungarian Grand Prix was the final race before the summer break, and Colapinto initially got off to a slow start.

However, he was quicker than Gasly in the final practice session before finally beating him in qualifying.

Unfortunately, looking purely at the race results, you would think Colapinto would be in trouble at Alpine, but there’s a reason why he finished 18th and second-last on Sunday that can’t be ignored.

READ MORE: Who is Alpine 2025 F1 driver Franco Colapinto? Everything you need to know

Franco Colapinto’s Hungarian Grand Prix ruined by Alpine pit stop problem

Speaking after the race, Colapinto explained: “It was not the best of days today, and a difficult race for us as a team.

“The pace was good at times in clean air, and I had the same feeling as yesterday. I think we have taken a good step forward with the car, which has given me confidence.

“But with the blue flags and losing time in the pit lane, it really limited what we could achieve today.

“The initial start and getaway were good, but from there we fell back on the first lap and lost places. I was struggling with rear grip and sliding, which came back to us later in the race.

“We opted for a two-stop and unfortunately, we encountered issues on both, which meant we were held longer than we expected.

“As a team, we’ve been very good recently with pit stops, but these things happen in racing.

“With the summer break, we need to use this opportunity to rest and reset and be ready to go again in Zandvoort and try to understand where we can keep making improvements.”

READ MORE: All you need to know about Alpine F1 Team from team principal to lineage

Alpine options to replace Franco Colapinto shouldn’t be needed before 2026

Colapinto’s two pit stops were the slowest and third-slowest of the entire race, with only a sluggish Nico Hulkenberg tyre change splitting Alpine’s efforts.

On the radio, Colapinto was gutted with his pit stops, with his two tyre changes costing him several positions on track.

Although he was never in contention to score points, Gasly’s struggles highlight that Alpine were never in contention for a top 10 finish.

Martin Brundle has warned Colapinto he should be concerned about his future, but there are very few upsides to replacing the 22-year-old with 10 races remaining.

Reserve driver Paul Aron is highly rated but even less experienced than Colapinto and would represent a huge risk if he were put in the car.

Valtteri Bottas has also been linked with Alpine, and while he is far more experienced than Colapinto and would likely be a quick upgrade, it’s hard to know whether the difference would be great enough to justify the financial repercussions of that decision.

Alpine don’t need to commit to Colapinto for 2026, but his race-by-race contract can’t be helping his confidence.

He deserves more time in the car, even if, on paper, the Hungarian Grand Prix was another tough weekend.